Entertainment News

Zim artist hails the power of Afro-fusion 

By Daniel Chigunwe 
Zimbabwean Afro-fusion artists said the genre is one of the most loved and flexible because of its high appealing to the African cultural, social and traditional aspects of real day to day issues as it speaks to the many people from all walks of life in contemporary Africa.
Little is known about this artists but much is known about his video song called “Chikopokopo” on YouTube which has captivating overtones of the Baba Harare, “The Reason Why” jiti version making him one of the most upcoming artist to make a name in the genre.

Born Innocent Samwa in the town of Mashonaland Central province of Mvurwi, the singer and musician said despite coming from a Christian background he still finds ‘Jiti’ resonating well with the African values and beliefs.

• “I could have chosen to join the ZimDancehall genre where everyone is almost going but as an artist I found that I could not perfectly and succinctly express my music through that genre hence I chose Afro-fusion.

“Through my religious background, the church leaders may expect us to be in the gospel genre but as an artists I enjoy the ‘jiti’.
“In our video Chikopokopo you will see women who were dancing,  I actually had to tone down the video by editing but that is what people want and even when we shoot the video it did not even give us difficulties because people were already flocking enjoying the song.
“It is not even sexually suggestive because this is what we have been seeing as we grew up in our societies, music iyi yagara inonakidza, and dhanzi racho ragara riripo,” said Samwa.

Innocent Samwa

The video is one of the most popular, release way before Baba Harare, “the reason why” began to even make waves however financial challenges have been the hindering challenge in distribution.
“I could not make any profits or meaningful revenue out of my previous works and I am also not yet expecting huge profits, my main desire is that I create an organ fan base and also get publicity money will follow later.
“In this case I managed to come up with discs unfortunatelyi got affected by the money exchange rates and where I was targeting to have 100 discs I ended up with only 40 which I sold at $1.50 per copy but I am simply happy that people have fallen in love with my music,” said the jiti maker.
The artist’s undeniable romance with the afro-fusion genre can be captured in the fact that he has so far worked on five albums which are yet to be recorded.
“ financial barriers are delaying much of the progress, I have since penned about 5 albums which are ready and ripe for recording but I am  yet to as I am still working on logistics.
“ it is unfortunate that we have been hit by a bad season this year, I was expecting to get some crop yields from the maize farming project I have but hopes are now low given the drought we are experiencing,” said Samwa.
Among some of his hit song videos is “ Ndakamuona ndichifamba” and “ Kuromba” which are superby expressions of native love and cultural issues.